Understanding
by Charlotte Nash
Summary: Yuffie/Vincent. This is something I wrote after reading many of these fanfics and deciding none gave true reasons just WHY they'd be a couple.


# Understanding

** **

Vincent sat on the edge of a cliff, atop a huge mountain range. He was staring absently down below at a huge waterfall pounding at a circular lake. The sun still shone high in the sky, though it was past midday, and it was illuminating the already beautiful landscape, but Vincent thought nothing of it.

"Lucrecia," he murmured, his eyes never looking away from the waterfall. He had no idea why he had said it, but he felt he was trying to give his life some… purpose. He had never felt so confused until recently. There was a constant ache within his torn soul, that had been there ever since the last time he had been to the last AVALANCHE meeting last month, but the strangest part was, that nothing _really_ interesting to him had happened there. But whatever it was, he decided not to go again, if it was going to hurt him like this.

He could cope with physical pain, and he had long adjusted to the guilt and self-hatred inside him. But this sensation was far more painful. It was like not being able to breathe, when your brain, lungs, screamed for oxygen as though submerged in water. But this went far deeper than any organ in his body.

He sighed, staring back down at the waterfall again. This again, was something else he could not understand.

He couldn't feel any sadness, or bitterness, or even affection, towards Lucrecia anymore. No matter how hard he tried to piece his feelings for her back together; they further slipped through his fingers.

Perhaps this was truly the end of his emotions. Perhaps he would finally turn into the empty shell of Vincent, after all the years of wasted life… something he thought had happened to him long ago anyhow…

"Vincent!" a clear voice rang out behind him.

Vincent half turned from where he sat, not bothering to even stand, his feet hanging carelessly over the edge, to see Yuffie sprinting towards him at top speed.

Vincent turned back to the cliff again. He already had a feeling why Yuffie had come to him…

Yuffie stared out over the cliff beside him, her hair being swept around fiercely by the wind.

"You must miss her a lot," she said sympathetically.

Vincent's eyebrows went up a little in surprise, though Yuffie could not see it – that was the last thing he had expected to hear – though, as he vaguely remembered from the last meeting, Yuffie was beginning to "grow up" more. Vincent had no idea why Cloud had said Yuffie had "grown up". It seemed a silly thing to say, as everyone matures, at some point. Realising Yuffie was looking at him expectantly, he returned it with an even look, which tried not to show how he felt, but somehow he felt he'd just given the message of "_go away_."

"Vincent… why didn't you attend the last two meetings? Cloud sent me to go find you."

Vincent had known that had been the reason she had come before she had even said that.

"C'mon Vincent, you can't just feel sorry for yourself forever, you have to go have some fun at some point!"

"You call AVALANCHE meetings fun?" Vincent spoke for the first time.

"Well…no… but they're a hobby," said Yuffie awkwardly. But, picking where she left off, she continued, "Anyway, the guys really need you there, we all want you to keep coming! You're our friend, so please, just come!"

Vincent said something that he surprised himself saying, but he was running out of excuses why not to go. He could sense the feeling he did not understand welling inside him, except it acted less like an ache, and more like a longing. "Why bother?" he blurted.

"Excuse me?" Yuffie asked, eyebrow raised.

"You don't gain anything for it. You have no reason to fight, and neither have I. Sephiroth is long gone. There is no need for us to fight anymore. Why do you stay, when you get no reward?" Vincent said, with an almost evil smirk, it was so bitter. He had almost scared himself by what he imagined he had looked like.

"WHAT?!" Yuffie shouted so loudly Vincent swung his head around again to face Yuffie. Her face was contorted into anger.

"What kind of shit are you talking, Vincent?!" she yelled, stamping a foot onto the ground. "I DO have a reason to fight – I care what happens to the world, and I DO get rewarded – I get a continued friendship, and respect, so ha! Now, I win, get your ass up, and get moving!"

Vincent stared at Yuffie. Deciding to not comment, he stood up, and began to walk slowly forward. He'd never heard her as mad as that before. Her yells still rung in his ears. He'd never got such an earful in his life either. 

Yuffie smiled to herself. She'd actually persuaded one of the most stubborn men in the world to move! "One of the most depressing men as well, actually," she thought to herself. And somehow, in her mind, she decided that, whatever happened to her, it was going to be a goal in her life to try and make this guy smile, or even laugh, at least once. "geez, I'm setting my sights a bit low, aren't I?" she thought sarcastically.

Vincent and Yuffie walked in silence. Vincent, was struggling with his inner battle, and felt that it would pain him further to talk, and Yuffie, who couldn't think of anything to say to Vincent. Finally, remembering her promise, she took a deep breath. If she could make him talk, it would be a start.

"Umm… shall I fill you in on the meeting details? AVALANCHE have suspicions right now we need checking…"

Vincent shrugged. Yuffie took his silence as a "yes".

"Uh…ok. Well, there's this company that are interested in opening up just one of the old reactors, saying it won't produce monsters and that they'll run it so low it won't cause any damage to the lifestream – but we know better. Effects will take place, over thousands of years, and eventually the planet will crumble. So we've gotta bust into Junon's HQ, and Cloud's gotta shout "Oi! Turn that reactor off now before I bash you with this hulking great sword, or slice you with my hair!" then the rest of us are going to have a look up at the reactor they're re-opening, to see just exactly what they're doing."

Vincent absorbed it; his attention had grown a little more as he stopped thinking about his problems. He had heard all of it. Well, possibly the exception of Yuffie's description of Cloud, but then again, it was better then her looking all misty-eyed at his name. Yuffie had been known to have had a bit of a teenage crush on him some time ago.

"Where did you say the reactor was?"

"I didn't say, but I'll tell you, if you like. It's the Nibel reactor."

A fresh surge of feelings ran through Vincent. Part of it was ice, yet another part was anger, and hate. Swallowing it back, he shut his eyes briefly, trying to clarify himself. Yuffie could see the pain that must have caused him to hear that. Nibelheim…

"Ok." Vincent had opened his eyes again a few minutes later. "Let's go a bit faster, if we're not going to miss…" Yuffie had vanished. Vincent's stomach plummeted, which surprised him, he felt no need to fear – why fear anything if it'd make him suffer to live?

"AHHHHH!!!" A screech up ahead revealed that Yuffie was cornered by a huge winged beast, which, by bad luck, had seized her shrukien in its two front claws, she was backed up against a tree, and wasn't equipped with any materia.

"Shit." Vincent thought, thinking much like his old self. Slickly drawing the Death Penalty, a bullet into each of its weak wings left it immobile, and rendered it powerless as it bled an oil-like blood on the ground.

"Thanks Vince," she breathed. "It took me by surprise…"

"Are you okay?" Vincent asked in an unemotional tone, ignoring the name abbreviation.

"S-sure," she gasped. Vincent lowered his gun and put it back in the holster. He stared at the slightly writhing monster. "There seems to be a lot more monsters than usual around, considering nearly all the reactors are shut," he stated. "Be more careful next time."

"Huh! Me be more careful? Well maybe if you had opened your eyes whilst you were walking, you would've noticed that stupid bird-lizard…thing… had completely knocked me winded!"

Vincent didn't reply. Yuffie had a fair point.

"Let's just keep going," he said.

"We're nearly there now anyway," Yuffie said. "Just pass through this small forest that's sprung up here, and we'll be at North Corel."

Barret had rebuilt the town, and it was now a part of Corel, but it was tidier and busy, and people's hearts were filled with less hatred and despair, but with more hope, led by Barret. All the AVALANCHE members were greatly respected worldwide for achieving the impossible. AVALANCHE's HQ was in Corel, now that the North and South had merged, the technology spread through them both.

Yuffie walked along a road, having no fear of cars – cars had run off mako, and nearly all of them in existence had been scrapped. Vincent walked behind her.

"Down here, Vince," Yuffie said, looking left or right for any people, before lifting a manhole cover. Vincent nodded, and frowned in thought as she climbed down, with her agility clearly showing as she jumped. "Vince…?" he thought to himself. "Vince…" He then smiled a little. "I like it." Where had_ that_ thought come from?

Yuffie walked along the tunnel, waiting for Vincent to climb down as she rapped carefully on a door. Cloud's head peered round, his bangs brushing against the door. Tifa smiled friendlily beside him.

"Yuffie! …and Vincent! C'mon, the meeting's about to start, we're all here!"

Yuffie smiled at Cloud, and allowed herself inside. She felt silly that once upon a time, she had liked Cloud… but one day, she decided he wasn't "her type." Though, to be honest with herself, she had no idea what kind of guy she _was_ looking for. Not that she was actually looking anyway. But she had a vague idea – someone not like herself, and someone _not_ like Cloud.

"And who was I kidding anyway?" she thought as she took a seat, and Vincent sat beside her. "It's obvious that Tifa was his true love anyway – besides, we would soooo not get on. I need someone calmer, and less of a ditz."

Barret could be seen sat at the front, looking around the number who sat in front of him. There were many members to AVALANCHE now that the full evil of Shinra had been raised, and AVALANCHE had campaigned against mako use, and it was nearly all abolished in every city.

Cloud had walked up the front uneasily. Barret knew that he couldn't make a speech as good as Cloud – and the more Cloud sounded like a klutz, the better his message got across – they were all human.

"Erm… Cloud walked up front, and walked over to a map pinned up on a board at the back. Vincent and Yuffie had seen it before – it was a huge map of the entire planet.

"Right," said Cloud. "A company has invested some reasonable sums of money into restarting a mako reactor." Murmurs of assent rose from the small seated number. "We already have proof," continued Cloud, " That mako reactors are no longer needed to power cities and towns. Midgar used up the most of it, and now the balance within the lifestream is beginning to return to normal.

However, although this company doesn't seem to hold much threat, they have been quite persuasive and insisting. Also, their choice of reactor is slightly worrying." Cloud swallowed. "They plan to open the Nibel reactor." A few gasps came from the crowd.

"We can't let them do that!" called a man in outrage. "Everyone knows full damn well that that reactor was NOT needed to power Nibelheim, it was a monster factory!"

"Not only that," Cloud continued, "They seem to be doing some research at the material cave on the north-east island. Cid refused them one of his transports, but they will easily find another way – there are plenty of other prototype Gelnikas at Junon, plus they have a base at Junon too, which means it won't be hard for them.

So, the plan is as follows: the most experienced members here ("that's all us," Yuffie thought,) will be the ones to see what they are up to, backed up by our newer members. What has frightened us the most is… this compant technically doesn't exist. They have a blood-red hand-written logo, yet no name. We have no idea who their leader is. We just know they exist, and no matter what they do, the're covering themselves up, very, very carefully. Right, the squads have already been formed beforehand.

Red XIII, Barret and Cait Sith are going to the materia cave up north, to see what sort of research is going on there. Also, I assign members 1 – 9 with them."

Some men in the group, obviously of those numbers, murmured to each other.

"Tifa and myself are going to Junon, to ask "politely" what they think they are doing. We won't use force unless necessary, however, if worse comes to worse, we will have another squadron of members outside. They are 10 – 19.

Lastly, but most importantly, the infiltration of the Nibelheim reactor at Mt. Nibel." Cloud paused. "this is a dangerous mission, so stealth is required. No juniors will accompany this squad, besides which, I feel they are up to it." Cloud paused.

"Must be me," Yuffie thought bitterly. "Yeah, sure, make the kid sneak round 'cos she can't take care of herself in battle…"

"Cid will provide transport and backup, and the squad is Vincent and Yuffie." Cloud paused. "Oh yeah, word of caution: don't attack them, unless they pose a threat to you. This is info gathering, not a war."

Cloud waved his arms. "Okay, guys, you all know who are the leaders of your squad. Go!" 

Yuffie felt a little annoyed. Cloud had sent her to find Vincent, and now she had to put up with him in a mission! It wasn't like he was a bad guy or anything, but he was a little…weird. She could hardly get a word out of him, and he was as stubborn as a mule. And there was the age gap.

"How am I supposed to make conversation with him, even if he was less quiet? He's 40-something in human years, but he was still 20-something from his sleep, and though I'm 17, he's still years older!"

she thought in annoyance.

Vincent had stood up beside her, his cloak brushed against her as he stood. _And all those goddamn layers freak me out…why can't he just take a few off?_

"C'mon, Vincent," she said. She concealed her annoyance carefully.

Vincent nodded. "Where would the Highwind be?" he asked.

Suddenly, Cloud's gloved hand made contact with Yuffie's armoured shoulder. "Yuffie… can we talk a moment?"

"Sure," Yuffie shrugged. She looked at Vincent. "You go on ahead, Vince," she said.

"I'll wait." Vincent said. Somehow he felt it was the right thing to do, and what was expected.

Cloud walked Yuffie into a separate room and shut the door. "Take a seat," he said politely.

Yuffie sat and stared at Cloud expectantly.

"Now, how can I phrase this…" Cloud said to more to himself than Yuffie.

"Oh Cloud! I'd love to marry you!" said Yuffie mockingly, giving him a fake hug.

Cloud laughed. "Err…no. well, let me try putting it like this: you remember the meetings we've had before, right?"

"Yeah," said Yuffie.

"Remember I made you book keeper one time, 'cos you were strapped for cash?"

"Oh yeah," said Yuffie.

"And I announced it in a meeting?" continued Cloud.

"…yeah."

"And you know when someone's name pops up, and suddenly everyone turns and looks at you, then looks away?"

"Yeah," said Yuffie, wishing that she could reply with something more interesting than "yeah".

"Vincent looked at you," said Cloud solemnly. Yuffie gave out a short bark of laughter.

"Big deal!" she sniggered. "you dragged me in here to tell me that?"

"Yeah… but even after everyone looked away, he still was looking at you."

"Pervert," Yuffie muttered under her breath, jokingly. She laughed again. "Why should it bother me, Cloud?"

"I think… well, I mainly put you two together in this mission because you both have the assets of being able to sneak about. But also, I think you two'd be good friends."

"Me? And the prince of darkness? Oh Cloud, you are silly! So what, he looked in my direction! Does that really give any clues whatsoever that a whole friendship could be based around it?" Yuffie giggled, stuffing a hand over her mouth.

"Under normal circumstances, you'd be right," said Cloud. "but Vincent… well, he's not exactly average is he? He doesn't have an interest in anything. He only half-listens to what I say. He seems to listen to you – I noticed that when you spoke, he seemed to listen. And let's face it – Vincent's had it tough."

Yuffie nodded. Vincent had had a harsh life.

"So I just wondered, Yuffie… can you try and cheer him up?"

" I'll try," said Yuffie doubtfully. _What do you think I've been trying to do on the way here? Shake him off?_

"Okay, that's all. Cid's on the outskirts of town. Good luck!"

"Thanks – I'm gonna need it." Yuffie said "And that's not for the mission, either," she thought.

Cloud opened the door. Tifa was waiting.

"Done?" Tifa smiled. "Let's go Cloud, I want to show this mako-man who's boss!"

"Tifa," Cloud chuckled, "that's actually a good nickname for him. I got a picture of him here – look at all those muscles – looks like balloons under his shirt!" Cloud waved a picture of the man – whoever he was. Vincent got a glance. The look seemed familiar.

He had short, ashen grey hair that was tangled, dry and brittle looking. His skin was pale, and his eyes glowed mako blue. Was he an ex-SOLDIER? But there were small scars on his body, which made an otherwise handsome man look unsightly. He also looked like he had gained worse injuries, but were concealed by plain makeup.

Most strikingly, and horrifyingly, was the look on his face. It was an informal photo, but the look in his eyes looked as though he would do more than murder any second. Somehow, Vincent felt they were in more trouble than he had bargained for, but Cloud did not seem concerned. Maybe he went on the basis of "appearances can be deceiving". 

"Not as muscly as you," said Tifa to cloud. "Balloon arms." 

Cloud chased her out of the HQ.

Yuffie and Vincent walked out to the Highwind – and suddenly the feeling flew back to Vincent, harder than ever in his chest. It didn't ache so, but it felt so strange. Vincent was sure he had felt it once before in his life – a mjor event – but he couldn't think why…

"Come on, guys, hurry up, the engines are on!" Cid called as the ascended the ladder. Vincent had gone first as Yuffie wanted to stay on the ground as long as possible. She could see Vincent's cloak waving in the strong wind as he climbed. Sighing, she pulled herself up the ladder. She also had an unhindered view of what was under Vincent's cloak.

"Oh boy, I wish I had my camera," she sniggered to herself. "it would be a great joke to show someone a picture of his ass. Shame he never takes that cloak off, he has such a nice figure."

Yuffie clambered onto the deck, and sat down inside, between the crates, where she normally sat. Vincent stared a little, his curiosity had suddenly opened. "Odd," he thought, "it's not really a big deal."

"Why do you always sit down there?" he asked. "Wasn't so hard, was it?" said his brain tauntingly.

"Hm?" Yuffie inquired, having heard his voice and not the question. She was surprised, though she kept it hidden – Vincent never started a conversation – it was usually up to another person to make him talk.

Vincent repeated his question, something else out of character. He wanted to stop, but it came out before he realised it. "Why do you always sit down there?"

Yuffie looked about. "It's just more comfortable down here," she said, vaguely. "I can't describe it, but it makes me feel I'm in a warehouse or something, it feels less like a plane here, and it stops me being so sick. I can't stand the thought of being on the bridge or outside, seeing all the ground rushing past below…ergggh…" Yuffie clutched her stomach. "Knew the travel sickness would kick in sooner or later," she said weakly. She had gone very pale. Vincent felt a twang of sympathy. "What's wrong with me?" he thought, panicked, feeling tense with worry. "Why am I going from one extreme to the next? I thought I was past emotion…"

"If you like, I'll stay here," he said. "you don't have to reply, if it makes you feel worse, but I'll try and preoccupy you, keep your mind off it."

"Thanks…" said Yuffie. Though it cost her a lot of effort to say it, she felt great gratitude towards Vincent. "Perhaps too much gratitude," she thought as her stomach leapt up in happiness, then remembered how ill it was and felt many times worse. No other time had anyone bothered to make her feel better – except Cloud, and he was clumsier.

Vincent wished he hadn't volunteered; what could he say? But he wasn't about to go back on what he had said. He knew that he needed time to think why he was so confused… and sitting here with a silent Yuffie seemed the best way…

"OH SHIT!!! You stupid £$^&*%!!!" yelled a voice from the bridge. Vincent looked up, his thoughts disturbed.

"What's wrong?" Vincent growled as he walked swiftly into the bridge.

"This goddamn £"$&^% here," shouted Cid, pointing to one of the crew, who winced under Cid's furious gaze, "…put the coordinates in wrong! Instead of landing a few miles away and going by foot, we're about to land right next to Mt. Nibel!!!" Cid looked at the man. "You $£^*&%!!!"

"Can't we turn around and land elsewhere?" asked Vincent.

"Too late, we're too close, they'll have seen us," said Cid, still cursing between every sentence. "Oh yeah, Cloud told me to hand this to you, it's a smaller version of the PHS – kinda a walkie-talkie, except slightly more hi-tec. You can contact Cloud anytime you need."

"Fine," said Vincent, picking up the small cellular phone thing. It was black, and fitted easily into his hand.

"Anyway, guys, sooner you move the better before they know you're here," said Cid. "THANKS TO THIS DAMN JACKASS!!!" he yelled as all the crewmen jumped. One of them looked very hurt.

"Sorry sir!" he squeaked. "I – I didn't know it was a mission, …I…"

Cid took a deep breath, still angry. "It's okay, man," he said very quickly. "Just don't do it again, or your ass will be blown into high heaven!"

"Yes sir!" said the man in relief.

Vincent left the room. The plane shuddered violently as they came into land.

"Ohhhh," moaned Yuffie painfully. "we're landing…"

"Here, take this Yuffie," said Vincent, handing her the mini PHS. "Cloud issued us one, and I don't have a pocket for it."

Yuffie looked at it. "PHS?" she inquired. Vincent nodded. "Okay," she said, pocketing it. Vincent was glad she had kept it. He still didn't like to talk much. Not that he hadn't talked to Yuffie.

"We haven't much time," Vincent quickly explained. "we've got to move quickly; they've probably seen us already."

"Damn," muttered Yuffie. I wanted some time to recover, too." 

Yuffie and Vincent waved to Cid, who remained at the Highwind. He and his crew had dug a small pit into the ground, to make it look like they had found a trace of rare materia they were searching for, or something. Vincent and Yuffie walked on through the forest. Yuffie seemed extra wary this time, her Conformer at her side. Vincent held the Death Penalty in its holster.

"I wonder what we'll find…?" wondered Yuffie aloud.

"No idea," said Vincent simply. After that, they walked quietly, each thinking about things. 

And people.

Yuffie felt unusually warm towards Vincent… for attempting to help her. "And it was so…un-Vincent like," she thought. Not only that, she had looked at Vincent strangely – from a new angle, a new light…

"he's so just not like me – he's my opposite," thought Yuffie. "Yet – he's not weak, he's strong, like me, and obstinate, like me._you thought he had a nice ass, _her mind said. _You never, ever, once thought that about Cloud, did you?_

Cloud was a silly crush, years ago, all in the past, thought Yuffie furiously.

_Aha! So you admit this isn't a crush?_ Her mind said teasingly.

"Shut up, brain," She thought angrily, trying to blink visions that shouldn't have been there out of her brain. She shuddered at the very idea… that cheered her up. She continued along, not thinking about her problems anymore.

Vincent had different problems. Maybe not so different.

"What's happening to me?" he thought, staring at his unclawed hand. "I can't feel sad for Lucrecia, or even affection… yet my other emotions towards other people are wildly swinging. I'm not a teenager anymore, what's wrong with me?" Vincent then looked down at the ground, and at his cloaks. "I give up. Why bother working it out? I expect there's some surprise for me at the end of it all," he thought.

Walking through the monster-infested Nibel Mountains was not pleasant, although both AVALANCHE members knew they could easily be defeated – the trouble was this company, whoever they were. Even Cloud didn't know what their name was; they were so secret…

Yuffie and Vincent had kept their eyes peeled for any suspicious eyes watching them. Yuffie's eyes were sharp, and she couldn't spot anything. A few monsters had foolishly wandered their way and were killed with a quiet slash of a shrukien.

As both of them reached atop Mount Nibel, the reactor loomed in the distance. It was definitely active, there were many mechanical noises coming from within. Yuffie and Vincent were a good distance away, but both of them could see the guards outside. Yuffie had dived to her left towards a large looking rock, but suddenly a claw caught her shoulder and dragged her away to the right… but a protest might get her in even more trouble… to her relief, it was Vincent, but she was very annoyed, her collar had been stretched and her neck hurt.

"What did you do that for?" she hissed in annoyance. Vincent nodded to an area. Yuffie looked.

There was some kind of warehouse built. It was erected with no windows, and thick doors covered any prying eyes. There were no guards at the door, but unless the milkman turned up, there was no chance of getting in. Yuffie bit her lip.

"There's no chance of us getting in there," Yuffie sighed unhappily. "But shall I call up Cloud on the PHS to say what it is?"

"Too risky," Vincent hissed. "With soldiers all round? They probably have intercom links – and we may interfere with their links by our PHS, then we're caught."

"You know a lot more than I do about this tech stuff," Yuffie muttered.

"I was a Turk," replied Vincent. "Okay. Should we spy in the reactor instead? Do you reckon it'd be easy for us to get in there?"

Yuffie stared at the two guards. No use leaping out for blood, Cloud said no senseless violence, besides which, she didn't want to cause a ruckus. The guards both seemed quite alert, and there was a fair amount of humming from the machines, but it was so rhythmical that they would hear anything that didn't fit the rhythm…even footsteps. The rhythm… that gave her an idea.

"Follow me," she hissed.

The guard rocked back and forth on his heels from boredom. "Man, I'm glad it's time for break soon, I'm starving!" the man stretched his arms. 

"Shut up," his partner hissed. "The boss might kill us if we talk on duty!"

"Yeah right. As if anything would find this place way up here, even if they made it alive," the other guard said. "Kinda sad, though, that nearly all the people who knew about this reactor died."

"Makes our job easier though," said the other guy.

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning shot between the guards, and as one leapt to dodge it, it blasted straight into a nearby machine. They both looked to see where the bolt had come from, but it was too dark; it was nightfall.

"Oh, shit!" the guy ran to the machine that made the most horrible sounds, and occasionally a high-pitched whine, that hurt his ears.

"Oh, why didn't you take the blow, you wuss? It's only a level one bolt spell!" shouted the other guard angrily over the noise. "Never mind, c'mon, we'd better go tell the boss…no… you wait here, okay, and no messing with that machine – that's for the mechanics!"

"Do you think I should find out what it was that attacked?" asked the first guard.

"Nah, it was probably just a stray monster," said the second guard. "If it was an enemy we should be worried about, they'd use something more painful than a bolt spell, don't you think?"

"Ok," said the other guy, whose ears still rang full of whining from the broken machine. He watched as his comrade walked towards the other building. "Ass. I'm getting some food – that guy worries too much." The guard turned to his sandwich box, which was hidden round by a tree, but to his surprise, it was at his feet. Shrugging, he picked it up where it was and ate. It never occurred someone might've moved it so he deliberately was facing the opposite way… he didn't hear the quiet footsteps as two people ran stealthily past…

"Easy," said Yuffie, rubbing her hands together.

"Sh," said Vincent. Both of them had clambered some of the exposed cogs in the reactor, jumped up chains, and spied down on people below to see if any evidence was in store. Both of them were surrounded by darkness. Only a few minutes had past when a man, accompanied by guards, walked out of the main reactor room. The man was tall, muscular and well built. He also had a sly, shrewd look to his face, sort of the smirk President Rufus had once.

"How long is this project going to take?" he yelled in annoyance back to the room.

A female voice replied, "Oh, be quiet," she drawled. "Mako is hard to acquire, with AVALANCHE breathing down our necks." Vincent and Yuffie listened harder.

"Yes… how is the recovery of mako data at the northern island?" The voice had a definite note of impatience.

"They'll have a technical read-out and some results in a few hours," said the woman, whoever she was, with a satisfied tone. "Also, they think it is highly probable that a replica high-powered materia could be produced, there, at that very spot. The other materia caves simply cannot deal with it. Their power is too low."

"What of Cosmo Canyon?" said the man sharply.

"We could not dare to hope that we could attain Cosmo Canyon's power," said the woman. "They are devoted to their land, and will fight to the last drop of blood if we dared say we wanted the caves underneath opened."

"_Open the cave of the Gi?_ Are they nuts?!" Yuffie thought.

"No matter. Once our first set is complete, we can easily discard them. It would be too easy to make it look like an accident."

"The power is easy to acquire, but we must be careful… we must act slowly but surely. You are becoming too impatient, sir," said the woman.

"Be quiet!" said the man irritably. Vincent caught a glimpse of the man's face – it looked vaguely familiar… he was sure he'd seen it at the Shinra building years ago, when he was a Turk, except this face was older… it was also the face in the photograph Cloud had shown.

"You'd better finish those papers by tomorrow! No mistakes!" he shouted as he left. Yuffie frowned. She didn't like this guy's attitude, and worse, he was planning to destroy Cosmo Canyon! But what would anyone need the Gi cave for?

Vincent slid stealthily down a chain, and Yuffie followed. Both of the walked across the narrow bridge. They were totally exposed. If anyone looked right now… Yuffie shuddered at the thought. Vincent, however, did not appear to worry. He peered round the door, and gazed around. Yuffie followed suit.

The containers that held monsters were active, but these held apparently nothing. Only after squinting and guessing what was in there, it became apparent it was crystallised materia – crystallised materia was very, very rare, and produced powerful magical effects. Yuffie presumed it was getting the mako to crystallise by the reactor pumping it up, and automatically having them connected to the containers, much like in the days when Hojo carried out his twisted experiments. Yuffie stared in horrified fascination. It was quiet in the room, except a desk was there, and the scratching of pen on paper could be heard. Yuffie noticed Vincent's eyes had tailed to the chair – and the figure sitting in it.

She was quite slim, with shiny blond hair pinned up. She wore a bright scarlet dress, almost a cocktail dress. She muttered to herself. "No reaction with human flesh… reaction with brain… first life form died, second gained small ability… third container, materia approximately 45% towards full…"

Yuffie suddenly felt cold metal on her lower back. "Vincent! Will you get your hands off me?!" she hissed in anger.

Vincent looked confused at her face, the suddenly his eyes trailed up in horror as Yuffie's eyes trailed down.

Both Vincent hands, claw or otherwise, were on the floor where he kneeled. She swallowed back, and looked behind her.

The man had dark grey hair, with flecks of blond in it. He wore grey robes – or was it a coat? That trailed to the ground. His eyes were hard and cold, and bright blue – mako blue. He was stood behind Yuffie, a gun aimed right up her backside. "Oh, shit," she thought.

The man smirked, guessing their thoughts. "Dear dear, we wondered if spies would come at anytime soon – we found a plane a few miles away from here – what kind of pathetic excuse did they have? Digging for materia because of lifestream vibrations?" he laughed coldly. "Fools – we did tests to see if our…research…could be felt from any distance away, and only around 50 metres around could anything be felt."

Yuffie and Vincent felt extremely stupid, Yuffie more so – it was not a dignified way to die, with a gun aimed at your ass.

"however, we are almost indebted to you," continued the man in amusement. "you tested our security measures. Even my partner in there knows you were here all along – " the woman inside the room suddenly swung round, and smirked. 

"I'm Scarlet, ex-weapon constructor for Shinra, I believe we've met before…?" she laughed her annoying laugh. Yuffie felt that if she did that again, she'd want to rip her apart, besides which, the little witch had tried to kill Tifa.

"anyway," continued the man, as his female friend smiled in amusement of the two spies' fate, "I know you're dying to know what sort if things are going on here- otherwise you wouldn't be risking your asses here right now, would you?" he paused. Vincent was fed up of the drama. He merely stared at the man with his unchanging look.

"It's too simple. For us. I heard you guys got your hands on some pretty neat materia, at AVALANCHE – Knights of the Round – no one could anticipate how much power was inside that small orb. It would take millions of years to process another, gradually waiting for powerful mako in the ground to fuse…

We found a way to speed up the process, via Hojo's last tubes. We allowed the materia to crystallise within the containers with no petty _soldiers_ in there to stop them weakening the power. We _did_ attempt to make human body parts becoming stronger via materia infusions, instead of mako – but they all failed – except the human brain one. We do not know what sort of effects it would have had, but the brain is still alive, with the materia in it. If successful, no one will need to carry materia again – a man could be born who could use materia at will. Either that, or they have a permanent mako-migraine."

Yuffie could see where this led… an army of magical soldiers with no materia…

"Also, the materia is very, very large… just a chip of the one in those tanks could be used for a weak spell – say, Fire3. A small orb cut out…that probably comes up to w-summon standard. But a little bit bigger, and even knights of the round will pale to the power that small orb will hold. To use the whole materia would kill you – you'd have to have so much Magical Power that you'd have to be a god or something!"

The man laughed again. "however, we haven't used any live human subjects yet. I'm sure you two should fill the places." The man smiled. "Your friends will soon end up here too, yes… I'm especially interested in that young failure, Cloud… yes…"

"How do you know about Cloud? All the people – well, except the bitch over there – who knew about it died, in the so-called "Promised Land"!" Said Yuffie. Scarlet let out a vehement exclamation, her painted talons bared. The man held up an arm and she sat again, still fuming.

"Because" the man breathed softly, "_not all of them died_."

"Who lived then?" said Yuffie crossly, fed up with the mind games.

The man looked deep into her eyes, they flickered with dangerous calm. Yuffie felt scared – they seemed hungry for revenge. He spoke.

"The president."

The stature… the face… though the hair had been burnt ashen grey, and the man was aged prematurely (and though it was well covered) it was undoubtedly the president Rufus. How he survived that explosion in Midgar was anyone' guess, but as Yuffie had her hands tied at the back, and two guards walked beside her with guns, and Vincent was just as helpless, she decided now was not the time to ask. They were walking down the mountain path only a short way, back to the warehouse place.

"I guess we are going to get a look inside after all," she thought bitterly. The huge doors opened smoothly, and both Yuffie and Vincent stared as they walked through it. It was a warehouse, full of people – and huge crates were lowered. The ceiling in this part of the building was very high, and cranes lowered the crates. There were bridges running across the complex up high, and people stared in anxiety as their faces locked with Yuffie and Vincent's. Even though this part was massively high, and full of potentially dangerous loads, it was not like that the rest of the way. Yuffie could see them approach a lift embedded in a complex within the complex (if you know what I mean.)

It was like a block of flats, each with an evidently low ceiling, as the windows were quite closely knitted. Yuffie and Vincent were forced into the elevator. Yuffie eyed the president as he pushed a button on the lift. Yuffie looked to see what number it was – if they were going to try an escape plan (as if _she_ was going to allow herself to become a guinea pig!) she'd need to know the floor they'd be on. There were numbers one to six, and the "five" was lit.

Vincent could see out of the corner of his eye, that Scarlet was longing to launch herself at Yuffie… and unfortunately, at him. And by that, he didn't mean with the talons.

They were walked along the corridors. Yuffie hurried to remember how many left, right, left right turns they had taken as they were walked. Finally, the guards stood back as Yuffie and Vincent were ushered into a windowless room. The walls were blank white. It was obvious this hadn't been used before. No a scrap of furniture lay in the room, except a battered looking old sofa. Their cuffs were taken off by the guards.

"Don't worry, you can't escape, but I'll make sure your stay is comfy before your brains are removed," said Rufus, evenly - but a crazed, almost power-hungry look glinted in his eyes.

Vincent stared into the young man's eyes. "You are a fool." Vincent replied.

Rufus stared at him, and laughed. "I'm leaving Scarlet in charge here," he said. "and Scarlet – no nastiness now!"

"Yes, Rufus," said Scarlet with an evilly lustful smile at Vincent, who blanked her. Yuffie could see the look in Scarlet's eyes, and her hatred of her doubled.

The door shut behind Rufus. Scarlet smiled at Vincent, then snarled at Yuffie. "Good thing I'm not allowed to damage you kid," she spat. "One touch and I might _damage_ your brain, as if its not already damaged enough – or did it never function properly in the first place?"

Yuffie pretended not to hear. She wasn't going to let that… that… bitch's comments get to her. However, Vincent felt hatred welling up within him, and anger. He swallowed – he couldn't transform, not in a small room, he might endanger Yuffie – when he transformed, he'd attack the nearest thing…

"…furthermore, your brain will be the first we test. I'm sure it would fail," she sighed, "but what would I care? Finally, we'll shove that brain back into your stinking body, so you can tell us the effects. Probably you'll have the rest of your life spent with dementia. Don't worry, I'll make sure your cute boyfriend gets _good _treatment before _his_ turn." Yuffie looked, with alarm, at Vincent. She could see Vincent trying to suppress his emotions… She knew what was going to happen, and edged away from him… and Scarlet.

Vincent was shaking slightly. _I…mustn't transform… I'd…hurt…Yuffie…I…can't hurt… her… _

Scarlet stared as Yuffie edged away. "You're even more pathetic than I thought, said Scarlet loudly, not noticing Vincent practically trembling behind her, his hand on his head, his claw keeping him balanced. "you're unbound, you're young, we're both unarmed, yet you're afraid of taking on your equal. How sad, how pathetic – you must be the lowest scum to infest the planet since the…"

A bestial roar came from Vincent. Scarlet had gone too far. She wheeled round, to see what was wrong, and her eyes bulged. Where Vincent had once sat, the huge Chaos Beast stood, wings beating, it's slit-like eyes staring at Scarlet horribly. She screamed just as fire, and claws, engulfed her. She fell lifeless to the floor.

Suddenly the door burst open, and the two guards, expecting to find an unarmed girl and a quiet, unarmed man, met a huge beast with eyes of flame. Both of them became ashes within a few seconds. The Chaos Beast then turned its eye to Yuffie. She shrank back in fear as it flew towards her slowly. Vincent had little control of himself in this state…

The beast put its head on one side, almost considering her. Then it raised its arms, and suddenly Vincent's normal form reappeared. Vincent leaned on the floor, gasping.

"Yuffie!" he said breathlessly.

"Come on," she said, pulling him up. "let's go, before the rest of them come!"

An alarm could be heard wailing. They must be pretty quick knowing they'd escaped.she hesitated. "Thanks for not ripping me to shreds," she said, as they dashed down the corridor. As they ran, a barrier clicked smartly across the elevator door.

"Ah, no! We're cut off!" Yuffie noticing that the elevator had sealed itself.

"this way!" Vincent called, pointing out the window. By luck, a crate was dangling from the crane at a height they could jump onto it. It was moving slowly, being controlled by someone on the bridge presumably, but everyone had left the bridge… the machine now had no one to stop it…

"You expect me to jump onto it?" Yuffie said in disbelief. "we'd be sitting ducks there!"

"No better than if we stayed here, just come on!" he urged.

Yuffie clambered onto the window ledge. "Vincent – if I die 'cos of this, I'll kill you," she said. The, taking a deep breath and gulping, she leapt as far as she could. She landed on the crates, and hid out of sight, and beckoned Vincent. Although the machine moved slowly, she did not want to leave him behind. Vincent stood onto the windowsill.

"There they are!" suddenly, down below, guards looked up as Vincent stood on the window ledge. They could not see Yuffie.

"He's going to jump on those crates! Quick, shoot him!"

A thousand bullets sounded all at once. Vincent heard and saw the glass of the window pane shatter as bullets poured in from all sides. He deflected some with his claw, but he wasn't going to hang around to see if any hit. He leapt for the crates.

BANG.

A single bullet had hit him. He felt a searing pain in his left leg, and he missed the crates.

"VINCENT!!!" Yuffie screamed as she saw him disappear. She had blown her cover, but she didn't care. She looked over the edge of the boxes and could see his body…

His claw has caught the edge of the wooden crates. It was still dangerous, but Yuffie was relieved. The crates were stooping lower, and she had no gun or shrukein to hold the soldiers away. She didn't care. She only cared about keeping Vincent alive.

"I'll pull you up!" she gasped, taking his other hand in hers. He allowed her to pull. Yuffie knew he'd be heavy, but she still wasn't strong enough to pull him up. She pulled harder.

"C'mon Yuff, you can do it!" she said to herself. Pulling harder, her heart going fast in her chest as bullets continued to splatter around them, she gave a final heave and he got a grip on the top. He pulled himself up onto the crates, and he was totally breathless.

"Your leg!" she said in alarm. Blood seeped through his red cloak; the blood was visible – scarlet on scarlet.

"Who cares!" he said, looking about. "We've got to worry about how we're going to escape!" the crates were being lowered towards the ground. He could hear Rufus' voice shouting furiously.

"DON'T shoot them, whatever you do! I want them ALIVE, you hear? For the torture!" his eyes still glowed with something more than mako.

Vincent and Yuffie watched as the ground approached. They were surrounded by guards. They needed a miracle to escape…

Yuffie peered down at the guards, and felt faint. A stray bullet whizzed past and she moved instinctively backwards, and lost her footing. And the inevitable happened.

She toppled off the edge.

"Eyaaaaaaaaaah!" she screamed as she fell. The ground was a long way from her.

"I'm gonna die," she thought, as the ground approached her fast and soldiers murmured in shock.

Vincent ran to the crate's edges.

"YUFFIE!!!" he screamed.

Life had been cruel, but it was not going to take away Yuffie! Never! He needed her! Without a second's hesitation, he jumped after her, anger and fear swelling up inside him… he knew he'd die too, and it was his fault they were in this mess… if he hadn't suggested the crates….

The Chaos Beast reappeared, as guards shouted in fear. They all ducked and lay flat on the ground. Vincent's normal first instinct was attack ,and he knew that… but this time, something human remained in the beast's heart. He swooped down and caught Yuffie. He landed on the ground, and reverted back to human form. Yuffie opened her eyes, shocked at the Chaos Beast's sudden rescuing, and shocked to see she was alive.

"V-Vincent…"

Vincent was shaking. He had spent all his energy doing those two transformations. He was weak, and he could hardly hold his limbs up from the half-kneel, half-crawl position he was in…

"Y-Yuffie," he breathed softly, swaying forward slightly with dizziness, so his breath tickled her ear. She pulled him close out of comfort and fear. As guards surrounded them, walking forward, guns raised…

And, fuzzy as things were, Vincent felt his mind, for the first time in years, drenched with truth and clear as could be. He could understand himself.

He knew why he couldn't love Lucrecia anymore. He knew why he never was able to find anything to mend his soul. He realised why he was always acceptant of the truth, and why he had such aches inside of him – it was because of his own denial of one… thing…

Vincent looked into Yuffie's eyes, which looked as though they would brim with tears. Using his remaining strength, he put his claw arm around her back gently, and linked his hand with one of hers.

"…Yuffie… I…" he couldn't say it, he was too weak to talk, but he had to let her know… he placed his lips onto hers. Yuffie's tears fell out of her eyes. She now understood why she was the only one who could control Vincent, and why Vincent had been on her mind, and all the things she thought would make the perfect guy were Vincent's qualities, and why she shuddered at the thought of this happening – it was bliss. It was true love.

Vincent could feel the water leaking out of her eyes as she kissed him back. His face was wet with her warm tears. Vincent now knew her feelings were mutual, and he held her all the more tightly, his own eyes tempted to spill – he'd gotten all he could be content with – and now, once again, he'd watch his life fall apart.

As he felt himself slip out of consciousness, pulling down Yuffie with him where he hadn't let go, he thought he heard a deafening bang to go with it. He wondered where the bullet had hit him, as the scenery went fuzzy…

…And he could think no more.

Yuffie's eyes flickered vaguely. She could see vague white blurs in front of her eyes, so she shut them again. Her head buzzed. That white light… was she dead? She opened her eyes again. It was a white ceiling. Her eyes tried to focus. A few vague shapes moved in front of her. She shut her eyes tight and opened them again. Cid was to her left looking down at her, face pale.

"You alright, kid?" he asked shakily.

Yuffie tried to smile, but it was small, and took a lot of effort, like she'd forgotten how to do it. She felt drained. Tifa put a cool damp cloth to her head. "How are you feeling, Yuffie?" she asked, her brown eyes filled with concern. Yuffie looked up briefly around her. She was in Tifa's house in Costa del Sol, and the whole of the original AVALANCHE had seemed to have come, even Barret with little Marlene, and Red XIII. Cait Sith was also there, controlled by Reeve, wherever he was in the world, though Yuffie had once heard he was in Junon. Yuffie didn't notice Vincent was missing, as her head hurt so much nothing made sense.

"My head hurts," she told Tifa.

"It was awful though," said Tifa. "You've been out cold, I think it was the shock that did it… you've been asleep all day."

"All day?" Yuffie groaned. "No wonder it hurts!"

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" Tifa asked worriedly.

"A little bit of both, though not much," said Yuffie. Marlene hopped forward.

"Tifa said I should give these to you when you woke up!" she said, handing Yuffie a bowl of grapes.

"Thanks, Marlene," said Yuffie gratefully. She hadn't realised how hungry and thirsty she really was. The gapes were cool, juicy and sweet, and Yuffie felt a lot better after eating a few. The fuzziness was clearing, she felt less hot, and she wasn't hungry nor was her throat parched.

"I feel better," she said. And suddenly it hit her.

"Where's Vincent?" she asked.

Everyone looked at each other, and nodded to her left, smiling worriedly, except Tifa. "He's in the bed next to yours," said Tifa. "He explained what happened…Rufus' plans… he'll tell you what happened after you two were knocked out," she said. She hurried from the room. Yuffie turned to her left. Vincent looked as worried as anything. His cloak and bandana were lay across the room. Yuffie had never seen him without them, and it wasn't a bad thing either.

"Vincent," began Yuffie.

"No, Yuffie," Vincent said. "I just want to say I'm sorry – for what happened…"

"Sorry for what?" asked Yuffie.

"For nearly getting you killed…and…and…" Vincent couldn't say it; he didn't want to bring back unpleasant memories. For her.

"Oh!" said Yuffie, blushing. "Vincent… you don't have to be sorry. You did the right thing. Both accounts. Besides which, if I hadn't have had that near death experience, I don't think I'd ever get a kiss in my life!"

Vincent looked at Yuffie, solemnly. "Yuffie, do you feel the same as me?"

"If I knew how you felt," said Yuffie, smiling. 

Vincent knew she had just said that to make him swallow his pride and say it. He couldn't. He couldn't say it – yet, if he didn't, his world would fall apart.

"I-love-you-Yuffie," he said, it coming out in a long string of words. Yuffie leaned over her bed and hugged him tightly.

"Me too," she whispered. And Vincent felt content. Yuffie's arms draped loosely over his shoulders where she was still weak, and he had more time to recover than her, so he held her like a porcelain doll.

And Yuffie was happy. And, for once ever since the day Hojo had given him a new cursed life, Vincent was happy too.

"Aw, bless!!!" Tifa had reopened the door a few minutes later, but closed it again when she saw Yuffie and Vincent in their embrace. Well, she'd _almost_ closed it…

"Well, I'd never have guessed this one would actually have worked, not even with all my scheming!" Cloud exclaimed quietly, staring through the keyhole, his face full of excitement and amusement.

"Cloud!" said Tifa sharply. "You didn't set them up, did you?"

"A little," Cloud replied, not taking his eyes away from the door. "I don't believe this! Pinch me!"

"Cloud…!" scolded Tifa, as though telling off a naughty little boy.

"Oh, man, quick, Tifa, where's the camera, where's the camera?!" Cloud leapt dashed off after tearing his eyes from the keyhole. Tifa tutted quietly to herself from behind the door.

"What _is_ he like?" she thought, glancing after Cloud.

Tifa shut the door firmly; glad to see that that everyone was contented. "Although Cid never caught Rufus," she sighed to herself. "And those guards died in the explosion…"

Vincent and Yuffie were thinking quietly, thought Vincent had no idea what he was thinking about, his thoughts just dwelling on the happiness that ran through his soul. Finally he felt mended, whole, and simply gazed at Yuffie, listening to her talk.

Yuffie's thoughts were elsewhere too. She was just hoping Cloud hadn't found that camera.

THE END

By Charlotte Nash^_^

Please review, I'm considering a sequel thing, and as it was a first attempt at romance, let me know what you thought! Thanks! 

__


End file.
